NEW RELEASES April 28, 2017

Willie Nelson: God’s Problem Child
God’s Problem Child is Willie s first album to debut all-new songs since Band of Brothers in 2014. It includes 13 songs, including seven recently written by Willie and Buddy Cannon, his longtime collaborator and producer. The album’s title track, penned by Jamey Johnson and Tony Joe White, includes vocals by both writers and the legendary Leon Russell (on what may be Russell’s very last recording). Closing the album is “He Won’t Ever Be Gone,” a song written by Gary Nicholson that pays tribute to Willie’s outlaw country comrade, Merle Haggard.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol 2
Original soundtrack to the 2017 motion picture. Set to the all-new sonic backdrop of Awesome Mixtape #2, Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 continues the team’s adventures as they traverse the outer reaches of the cosmos. The Guardians must fight to keep their newfound family together as they unravel the mystery of Peter Quill’s true parentage. Old foes become new allies and fan-favorite characters from the classic comics will come to our heroes’ aid as the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to expand.

John Mellencamp: Sad Clowns & Hillbillies
the 23rd full-length album from heartland rocker John Mellencamp. Sad Clowns & Hillbillies features Carlene Carter, the daughter of June Carter Cash and stepdaughter of Johnny Cash. Sad Clowns & Hillbillies returns Mellencamp to the musical eclecticism that is, itself, a reflection of his wide-ranging musings on life. John Mellencamp is an authentic voice of American music and master storyteller with a commitment to creating traditional rock ‘n’ roll, bittersweet songs of happiness and melancholia, and fervent political dissent. His passions and experiences resonate beautifully in this showcase of his music. Sad Clowns & Hillbillies is produced by John Mellencamp. Sad Clowns & Hillbillies is the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s follow up to 2014’s critically-acclaimed, Plain Spoken, Mellencamp’s fourth consecutive Top 20 album, dating back to 2007’s Freedom Road.

Mary J Blige: Strength of a Woman
the 13th album from the R&B singer/songwriter. The album is her first full length studio release since 2014’s The London Sessions. Strength of a Woman features guest appearances by Kanye West, Quavo, DJ Khaled, Missy Elliot, Prince Charlez, and Kaytranada. Features ‘Thick Of It’, U + Me (Love Lessons)’ and ‘Love Yourself’ (featuring Kanye West) which make up her most honest body of work to date.

New Found Glory: Makes Me Sick
Pop punk legends New Found Glory are back! This year marks the band’s 20 year anniversary, which will be celebrated with this album and a 20 year anniversary tour (appropriately titled 20 Years of Pop Punk) where they will be playing new material along with catalog albums from front to back. With two gold albums under their belts, endless tours, and pop punk hooks unlike any other, 2017 is set to the year of New Found Glory. The Coral Springs, Florida-based band formed in 1997. During their lengthy recording career, the band have released eight studio albums, one live album, two EPs, and three cover albums. Emerging as part of the second wave of pop punk in the late 1990s, music critics consider them a key pioneer of the genre.

Gorillaz: Humanz
Produced by Gorillaz, The Twilight Tone of D /\ P and Remi Kabaka and recorded in London, Paris, New York, Chicago and Jamaica, Humanz comes seven years on from the release of albums The Fall and Plastic Beach. Murdoc Niccals (bass), Noodle (guitar), Russel Hobbs (drums) and 2D (vocals) are – as always – joined by a stellar line up of featured artists which includes Jehnny Beth (Savages), Danny Brown, Benjamin Clementine, de la Soul, D.R.A.M., Peven Everett, Anthony Hamilton, Grace Jones, Zebra Katz, Kelela, Mavis Staples, Vince Staples, Popcaan, Pusha T, Jamie Principle and Kali Uchis among others.

Old Crow Medicine Show: 50 Years of Blonde on Blonde
50 Years of Blonde on Blonde was recorded live at the CMA Theater located inside the historic Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum located in Nashville, TN in May 2016. The album was mixed by Grammy Award-winning Ted Hutt and Ryan Mall. “Fifty years is a long time for a place like Nashville, Tennessee. Time rolls on slowly around here like flotsam and jetsam in the muddy Cumberland River. But certain things have accelerated the pace of our city. And certain people have sent the hands of the clock spinning. Bob Dylan is the greatest of these time-bending, paradigm-shifting Nashville cats,” says Ketch Secor, the primary vocalist of the Old Crow Medicine Show. “By deciding to record his newly found rock n’ roll voice in 1966 Nashville, Bob swung the gates of country music wide open; so wide, in fact, that 50 years later there was still enough of a crack left for Old Crow Medicine Show to sneak it’s banjos and fiddles through the gates with string band swagger.”

Feist: Pleasure
the fifth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Feist. When Feist came out with 2011’s Metals, her underrated follow-up to The Reminder, she made it clear that she was not interested in playing the sparkly, quirky pop singer seen in the “1234” video for the rest of her days. “Built by what we got built for/As much as what we avoid,” she sings, shouting the first line and cooing the second. By the climax, she’s screaming about how pleasure is “what we’re here for” but still hinting at more than just straight-up carnality. She doubles down on the clamor with punkish hiccups, handclaps, and shouty chants. What began as a ruminative peek into why we desire, becomes a kind of rallying cry for how sex is our will. Now that’s the reminder.

Mark Lanegan: Gargoyle
from the alt-rock singer/songwriter and former Screaming Trees frontman. Features guest appearances from long-time collaborators Josh Homme [Queens Of The Stone Age], Greg Dulli [The Afghan Whigs] and Duke Garwood. Early in 2016, Mark was at home in LA, working on some ideas for what might turn into his next album when he got an email from a friend, an English musician named Rob Marshall, thanking Mark for contributing to a new project he was putting together, Humanist. Now Rob was offering to write Mark some music to return the favor: “I was like, Hey man, I’m getting ready to make a record, if you’ve got anything?'” Mark recalls. “Three days later he sent me 10 things!” Within an hour, Mark had written words and vocal lines for two of the pieces Rob had cooked up at Mount Sion Studios in Kent and pinged through the virtual clouds to California. Rob’s music fitted perfectly with the direction Mark had been pondering: in essence, a more expansive progression from the moody Krautrock-influenced electronica textures of his two previous albums, ‘Blues Funeral’ and ‘Phantom Radio’. Eventually, Rob Marshall would co-write six of the songs on the new Mark Lanegan Band album.

Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm
Robert Cray has been bridging the lines between blues, soul and R&B for the past four decades, with five Grammy wins and over 20 acclaimed albums. For the Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm album, the Blues Hall of Famer traveled to Memphis with his friend, renowned Grammy Award winning producer Steve Jordan, to make a classic soul album with Hi Rhythm, the band that helped create that sound. The album opens with a driving, soulful version of Bill Withers’ “The Same Love That Made Me Laugh” that sounds as if it was originally from an old Hi Rhythm recording. When Robert chose two Tony Joe White songs for the album, White, a big fan of Cray, came up from Nashville to sit in. First up is the moving ballad “Aspen, Colorado” (the sister song of his “Rainy Night in Georgia”). The other end of the spectrum is the swirling psychedelia of “Don’t Steal My Love.” The tribute to O.V. Wright and Hi Rhythm is the horn-driven version of “You Must Believe in Yourself.” Known for writing “Mustang Sally” and many other songs, Sir Mac Rice’s “I Don’t Care” follows on the album with an unforgettable hook, and Rice’s funky “Honey Bad” features more guitar brilliance from Cray. Moving into early R&B from the 5 Royales, Robert performs “I’m With You Pt. 1” then turns the guitar loose on “I’m With You PT 2.”

Mew: Visuals
the Danish alternative rock band’s 7th album, and follow up to their critically-acclaimed album, + -[Plus Minus]. Mew frontman Jonas Bjerre has worked on the projections for the band’s live shows since their early days. Usually, the Danish trio finish an album and Bjerre gets to work on the visuals. For their seventh record, though, the singer decided to turn things upside down, working on the visuals first and seeing if they informed the music. The resultant record feels like a culmination for one of rock’s most ambitious and inventive groups: Visuals is where Bjerre and his bandmates, bassist Johan Wohlert and drummer Silas Utke Graae Jørgensen, join the dots of a career that has spanned over two decades. Visuals is Mew at their most compact, their chemistry at it’s most potent. With only one song over five minutes, it’s their most concise album. Bjerre says there was no need for a grand, overarching concept. Each song on Visuals represents it’s own little chapter and story: nothing needed to be overly long. Twenty years into their career, Mew have the irrepressible ebullience of a band on their debut album. Visuals feels like the beginning of a new chapter.

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Friday, October 26th 7:30 PM at Occidental Center for the Arts

Laughing Gravy at Peacetown

Sonoma County’s Laughing Gravy is back! with ‘An Evening of Cosmic American Music’. This popular band of super-accomplished American roots musicians has been paying musical tribute to country-rock icon Gram Parsons since 2003, when LG was founded by radio personality, producer and musician (and record store dweeb) DougJayne. Much of their material is original, but on this night, the focus will be mainly on songs that were either written or covered by Gram Parsons, who would have turned 72 on November 5.

Laughing Gravy is Doug Jayne on acoustic guitar and vocals; Allegra Broughton on acoustic guitar and vocals; Kevin Russell on banjo, mandolin, guitars and vocals; Sam Page on bass and vocals; Dan Ransford on drums; Bobby Lee on pedal steel and vocals; and Ron Stinnett on keyboards and accordion.

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FREE LIVE Music at The Last Record Store in your future !Accordion Babes 2019 Pin-Up Calendar Release Party with Renee de la Prade and Onah Indigo
Saturday September 1 at 2pm
Get your calendar autographed ! Start your Holiday shopping early !! Who doesn’t love a BIG squeeze !!!

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Stoll Vaughan LIVE @ LRS Saturday August 18 – 3pm
If Stoll Vaughan sounds familiar — his music, if not the name – it might be because the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter’s efforts have been heard, but not necessarily identified, on major motion picture and network TV series soundtracks likeTrue Blood, Shameless, Friday Night Lights and The Office.
Stoll’s intriguing new album, The Conversation, came out independently via the Commonwealth Artist label on June 29 and is likely to, at last, identify the artist with the music he’s been creating for quite some time. It’s not as if Stoll has been completely anonymous in light of the fact that he’s toured with such top and varied artists as John Mellencamp, Marty Stuart, Def Leppard, John Fogerty, Journey, Don Williams and James McMurtry.READ MORE
Stoll will be bringing merch including his latest album, The Conversation on Splatter Vinyl !

and next week…Dark Bright EP Release PartySaturday August 25 at 2:05pm
Dark Bright is a new band pioneered by Northern California based Kirana Peyton and Joni Davis. Two voices, electric guitar and keyboards create an atmosphere of hard edges and beauty. Their combined musical histories include national and international touring as well as recording and self releasing solo works. Notable performances include Glastonbury Music Festival, Austin City Limits, and The Great American Music Hall. Each have opened for esteemed artists such as Nick Cave’s Grinderman, Les Claypool, Aimee Mann, and Deerhoof.

Dark Bright are currently playing out and rejoicing in their mutual love of distorted guitars, analogue synths and dark chocolate.